10 years before the explosion - Palace

It could be said that since she was born, Alice was extremely blessed. A princess from a wealthy country not at war, with both aptitude for inner mana and outer mana, a brain that absorbed information like a sponge and talent in anything she put her mind into

She was so talented that at the age of 5 she surpassed her big brother that was one year older. She could read better than him, make harder calculations, her etiquette and dancing were spotless, knew more history than him and memorised all  the states in the country. To make it worst, she also had classed about inner mana and outer mana, since they were important for self-defence and prolonging life, meaning she had less time to study than the prince and she still surpass him

Basically, she was a monster

Since her brother turns out so normal, her teachers, the servants, nobles and practically everyone else in the country were worried that the king and queen mojo was running low after 3 monsters, but everyone were pleasantly surprised that the prince was the only exception

This meant that every time she surpassed his big brother at something, she would get praised as an outstanding girl since they were glad she wouldn't turn out like her brother

Alice loved the attention and support she got every time she worked hard, so she worked even harder, easily surpassing her brother in a short time

And it could be said this was the pinnacle of her accomplishments, earning her a great amount of praise from everyone around her

Sadly for her, that was it. After surpassing her brother, even though she was leaning at an amazing speed, it was still around her other brothers level, so even though she still got praised by her tutors, nobles and everyone else, it wasn't at the level it was before

Instead of saying stuff like AMAZING!! or I CAN?T BELIEVED YOU DID THAT!!! etc, it was more like good work, how hard working, you are great, etc. The level of excitement wasn't the same, making her feel unsatisfied

It didn't take long to understand why. Since she was smart and she paid attention, she understood that even though she easily surpassed her big brother, her 2 remaining brothers and sister were amazing according to the rest, shadowing her numerous accomplishments since they did it before her

Still, she didn't give up, she was sure the only reason they surpassed her was simply because they were older than her, if she put some effort, she would surpass them in a few years like her big brother, and she would finally get the attention she deserved

3 years before the explosion - Palace

Everyone called her the angel of the family, and she kept a cute and innocent act all the time to get others people support and trust while working hard to surpass her family

But it was impossible, she may be a monster, but she had to recognise they were too

She never slack off, always did her best and she knew that she was leaning at an amazing speed, but she wasn't getting closer to her objective. No matter how hard she worked, she couldn't surpass her brothers at anything

At her age, her sister Rebecca could use advanced spells of any kind while Alice could do of 3. Her brother Paul could kill a dragon while she could only kill a reinforced tiger. Lastly, her brother Jorge could charm anybody he met in 5 seconds while she could only do it in 10

No matter how hard she worked, the distance between them was only getting larger not shorter, and that frustrated her a lot. It could be said that she was better at magic than both Paul and Jorge, or better in inner mana than Rebecca and Jorge, or better at socialising than Paul and Rebecca, but she wasn't even close of reaching their level in what they were good at

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The worst part was that she knew she wouldn't surpass any of them even if she focused in one subject like them. She could tell that they had even better talent than her in their subjects, since their level was insane, even by her standards. No matter how hard she trained, it would take her years to be able to kill a dragon, she would never be able to use more than 3 types of magic, and  even though she had an innocent act that work really well, her brother could charm even hydras

They really deserve the title of monsters

But even though she knew she couldn't beat them in their speciality, she still could beat them in one thing, the throne

All of them were competing for the throne. Since sooner or later, her father and mother would have to choose the next in line

Lucky for her, they wouldn't choose according to age, but ability, a tradition that had gone down since the start of the kingdom

Meaning that she had a chance, even if it was a small one. The problem with choosing one was a great one since they have 4 capable persons to chose for

Well, technically 5, but no one believed that HE would be chosen when there were 4 far better candidates

Meaning she had to be a better option than the other 3 monsters, and it wasn't something easy to accomplish. Each had the support of a faction, and all 3 were capable, making the decision really hard

Paul had the army, Rebecca had the mages, Jorge had the nobles and she had the people

If the king chose one, the other factions would complain a lot since they pick was quite capable, making it really hard to choose a successor

And this worked perfectly for Alice since this brought her time to make a plan

7 days before the explosion

It was hard, but she finally did it. Taking advantage of a visit (for diplomatic reasons) from the prince from the Zodiac kingdom, she managed to charm him and kept in contact with him over the years.  They even met in secret for time to time, and she could tell that he fell completely in love with her

And from there it wasn't hard to "persuade him to find a way to be together". If she had to be honest, it was almost brainwashing

Anyway, with his help, and with the help of some other people she also managed to "persuade", she had everything in place to make history and surpass everyone in her family

She would not only prove she was better than all those monsters, she would be the one that united both countries, making her the angel that brought peace

And The way Alice planned to do it was perfect. She found out that the priestess from the temple was actually a spy, so it wasn't hard to convince her to modify(with help) the temples mana veins it would cause a catastrophic explosion, getting rid of all her competition. After that, with the help from an item that was given to her as a present in one of her birthdays, she planned to use it as an excuse on how she survived

From there, everything else would be easy. She would blame the elf or dwarves, Marry the prince from Zergeit so they could go to war and conquer them

Then she would find an excuse, attack the other country, leaving the beast men for last. That way, not only she would unite the human race, but conquer the whole continent in the process

Some may think that killing her family and a lot of people to be in charge may make her a true monster, but in the game of thrones, you either rule or die, so why not go all the way?

Note: there is a part 2 that explains what she was doing while the prince was busy putting out fires, The question is, do you want it as the next chapter, for later or never?